Jason Gaston

From The Barna Group, the great statisticians that they are.

• 63% of students don’t believe Jesus is the Son of God
• 58% believe that all faiths teach equally valid truths
• 51% don’t believe Jesus rose from the dead
• 65% don’t believe Satan is a real entity
• 68% don’t believe the Holy Spirit is a real entity

This is why I am excited about our next series titled “A Great Unveiling.” We’ll be unlocking and pulling back the veil of the key doctrines of the faith. Our aim is to begin to get students to view the world through the lens of Scripture rather than through the lens of T.I. and Rihanna and Katy Perry. As Steve Wright said in his book “reThink” about the state of our students (quoting from the Apollo 13 Mission) “Houston, we have a problem.” The only difference is that the Summit Church studentLIFE leadership refuses to sit back and lose the mission. We’ll fight hard for the lives and minds of our students against our enemy.

Multi-Site. It’s a scary word in some of our baptist circles. Not here though. We’re committed to planting churches all over the world and starting new campuses in the Raleigh/Durham area. As our church moves forward in pursuit of reaching more with the gospel and equipping them with the gospel to be true disciples of Jesus, there are several factors that come into play when going “multi-site.” The following posts will be done in response to some questions I have received from friends who are seeking to flesh out what exactly Multi-Site is.

Question I :: Are we Delivering the Same Product at one campus as we are at all the other campuses?

First off, GREAT question. I do want to address some of the simple language that can get us caught up in the “business” mindset that we want to avoid. The gospel of Jesus Christ is not a product that consumers can purchase, it’s the Hope of Nations. Our goal as believers to illuminate the Hope of Nations to the world around us. I knew exactly the question my friend was asking, I just never want to us to think that Jesus is a product! He is the King of Glory and the Rescue for sinners. I think his question is probably better stated by asking “Are you guys doing the same exact things at all the different campuses?”

Yes and No. Let’s take McDonald’s for an example. (Sorry, I am not attempting to disgrace the local church by comparing it to the worst Fast Food joint ever.) Whenever I am overseas, mainly in Asia somewhere, I make a mental note of where all the Golden Arches are in the city that I am in. Why? Because I know that after 2 weeks of indulging in local cuisine, I’m probably ready for a good’ol fashioned cheeseburger. What in the world does this have to do with multi-site? A lot actually.

• McDonald’s offers the same foundational foods at every restaurant// Whether you are in the great city of Apex or in the city of Beijing, you can guarantee that you are going to get the same McDonald’s french fries and burgers (although they may not look the same everywhere, as we will discuss in just a minute), along with the same looking menu at all the McDonald’s across the world. There are things that make McDonald’s McDonald’s. In the same way, there are those things which we uphold that will ALWAYS be foundational to us as we start new churches and new campuses. Our mission of Loving God*Loving Each Other *Loving Our World is evident no matter what campus you belong to, and you better believe we uphold the same key doctrines at each location.
• On the flip side of that, McDonald’s in India does not offer all of the same products. While in New Delhi a few years back, I was really craving a BEEF burger, but couldn’t even find one at McDonald’s since those crazy cows are sacred there. The point is that McDonald’s reflected the culture in which it was in. Same goes for us. We want to look like and become “indigenous” if you will, to the areas in which we are in.

Does our message change? Absolutely not, our foundations are set. Are our campuses doing things a little differently to reach our areas of the city? Yep. (Abrupt ending to this post is officially being carried out.)

Ready…Go

The posts on Multi-Site are starting tomorrow. We had a church business meeting last night. The best thing about the meeting were the points on “What God has Been Up To” at Summit over the last 12 months. Here they are:

• Added over 500 new members
• Baptized 140 on one Sunday
• Average attendance is now at 2600/week
• We have launched 2 new campuses
• We have 41 International Church planters on the ground overseas from Summit right now
• We have over 100 SummitLIFE Groups, 30 being added this past year
• More than 1,200 people participated in a short term mission project, either here in Durham, nationally or internationally
• We have started a Church Planting Center with more than 70 people involved
• Over 350 in studentLIFE and kidsLIFE each week
• Our Latino Ministry had over 150 attend their first worship service (they prayed for 75)

Booya. I love my church.